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BIG MOVE RIGHT UP DOWNING'S STREET 15-1-08
Toby Higgins
An old life cliché goes something like; "as one door closes, another one opens".
The gist of it is simple enough and while admittedly in football circles, January is a time to talk windows as opposed to their opaque neighbours, it would seem that the saying has more prominence now than for some time.
The display against a lacklustre Liverpool side, who, after revelations that the American owners did contact Jurgen Klinsmann prior to his arranged switch to Bayern Munich, was one that brought encouragement to title chasers and Boro fans alike.
Boro's tendency to score goals, and gain points, against the league's "bigger boys" at the Riverside is as shrouded in mystery as ever before.
The Manchester Uniteds, Arsenals and Chelseas alike roll into Teesside at various times of the season and, despite knowing that Middlesbrough is a tough place to come to, they seem powerless to resist the swagger of the home side and indeed their own ability to disappoint.
To call this one a shock, though, would be unfair. Just like last week's win at Bristol City, shocks can only come when people were not expecting the outcome that prevailed.
Perhaps it was just that an extra 7,000 people dotted around Teesside had nothing better to do on Saturday than watch the unfancied Boro play host to the Champions League runners up. Or perhaps they knew that Boro would get something.
If that's the case, then they, along with the players, proved themselves right.
Gareth Southgate commented afterwards that it was becoming increasingly difficult to put a squad together when it comes to match days, so badly has he suffered with injuries and suspensions at key moments. The eleven he fielded on Saturday though, didn't let anybody down.
The usual names crop up. Fabulous was just that, as he and the Boat, still exit bound if you believe reports, stood firm against the waves of Liverpool's significantly more expensive midfielders.
David Wheater looked immense - it was arguably his best performance in a red shirt.
Luke Young and Gary O'Neill gave the same, reliable solidarity that typifies the ideals of a manager who carried similar traits as a player.
The debutant though, deserves a fair amount of praise reserved under his name. Jonathon "who?" Grounds is far from a household name in Boro's squad, let alone the might of the Premier League. It was almost inevitable, however, that he wouldn't disappoint, so good were his predecessors on debut.
His touch, confidence on the ball, and willingness to play a bit too, is something we've come to expect from all academy "graduates".
He, like Morrison, Cattermole, Parnaby, Johnson, Wheater, Taylor, and the others before him, made an impressive start to his full Boro career and Southgate will have no reservations about throwing him back in, should he need to.
Indeed throwing youngsters in against the big sides is a habit that seems to work.
There is one name missing from the above list though. Stewart Downing is without doubt Boro’s most famous youth team product and is the most talented player to have come through the academy for many, many years.
With each passing day though, it looks more likely that Downing will have made his final appearance in our famous red shirt and, at the time of writing, Tottenham are understood to have made a formal offer.
Downing’s end, assuming it does come during the next week, will mark an overwhelming success for Middlesbrough Football Club on the whole.
Various coaches, players and managers have sculpted Downing since the tender age at which he joined the club into the player he is today.
With the long term goal of the academy being to produce players good enough to play in the first team, or even good enough to be sold to generate the club some revenue, Downing’s sale will be the reward for years of investment in his development.
It’s something that Downing won’t, or at least shouldn’t, forget. This is true whether he moves or not.
He was an unused sub during Boro’s Carling Cup final win over Bolton nearly four years ago. He has, by my reckoning, notched up 171 appearances for the Boro, which isn’t bad by the age of twenty-three. Nor is having fourteen England caps, having played in a UEFA Cup final and been to a World Cup.
For all he is a talented winger, and has built up a reputation as such through his own performances on the pitch, there is something remarkable about his relationship with the Boro fans.
Maybe it’s the remains of yesteryears' mentality - we like players who tackle hard, man then ball, every time. Downing’s reluctance to jump for headers, presumably through fear of actually getting hurt, makes him stand out considerably against a backdrop of players who are willing to throw their bodies on the line.
Presumably, Boro fans' ideal local lad is somewhere in between Downing and Lee Cattermole - a guy who's not afraid to get stuck in and ruffle feathers in the way Cattermole loves to, combined with the crispness of pass and technique that Downing doth possess.
Somewhat unfortunately, if this is the case, we have both attributes in two players and not one.
There is (another) old saying; "God, if I can’t have what I want, let me want what I have".
It could be that, while Boro fans couldn’t have the Downing/Cattermole blend, they never really could learn to love Downing for the talent he so clearly has.
That is not to say fans have hounded him out of the club. I’m sure Downing’s potential move suits him very nicely indeed, thank you very much, with him having claimed to be "flattered" by the interest from Spurs. But the fans have certainly never taken a real shine to him, the way they appreciate a Lee Cattermole crunching tackle.
While Downing’s departure may not happen this January, or in fact at all, the arrival of Alfonso Alves, who as recently as late 2007 scored seven goals in a game for his current club Heerenveen, looks likely.
Maybe I’ll wait until next time to discuss the logic around his signing. Safe to say though, I don’t much agree with it.
Same time next week
Up The Boro
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